Vanity Fair and Vogue Get TV Deals

Vanity Fair and Vogue are getting into the TV business. According to The Wall Street Journal, the Condé Nast titles have inked deals with Discovery Communications to launch two shows: Vanity Fair Confidential and Fashion Fund.

The crime and mystery show Confidential, based on a series of VF articles, will air on Investigation Discovery channel, and Fashion Fund, based on a design contest sponsored by Vogue, will air on Ovation channel.

Magazine articles serving as the source for TV shows and movies is nothing new, but what is worth noting here is that these two deals are seemingly more friendly to Condé Nast, not writers. Older Condé contracts gave writers royalties if their pieces hit the big screen, but newer contracts do not give out as much. Unsurprisingly, magazine editors and writers aren’t happy with that, which makes sense, since without their ideas the shows wouldn’t exist.

Dawn Ostroff, head of Condé Nast Entertainment — the division of the publishing house that handles TV and movie deals — told the Journal that writers still get “a fair market value” for their work. Let’s hope that’s true.

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